I employ visual cues culled from mass culture, excerpt processes from industry and patterns from the decorative arts to create handmade, one-off objects that manifest the nostalgia of history, the speed of progress and the memory of the human hand.

Idol
Nick Paparone functions within the systems of mass culture and the marketplace in order to satirize and expose their inner-workings. Employing a variety of media from video, installation, and performance, the artist states that his work “is slathered with evolving iterations that anatomize branding idioms and client dynamics.more…

Omelia Contadina
Omelia Contadina est née de l’intérêt de JR pour les difficultés rencontrées par un grand nombre de petits agriculteurs et d’habitants des campagnes italiennes. Alice Rohrwacher explique les origines du projet: “l’automne dernier, lors d’une promenade à la frontière entre l’Ombrie, le Latium et la Toscane, j’ai fait part à mon ami et artiste JR de mes inquiétudes quant à la destruction du paysage agricole, violé par les monocultures intensives avec quelles grandes entreprises façonnent des territoires entiers. Je lui ai raconté, en fille d’apiculteur, la mort massive d’insectes que provoquent de tels changements… À un moment donné, nous nous sommes arrêtés à un carrefour: de tous côtés, des rangées ininterrompues de noisetiers remplissaient le paysage jusqu’à l’horizon. En regardant cela, nous nous sommes dit que cela ressemblait à un cimetière de guerre. Sur le chemin du retour, nous avons décidé – si cela ressemble à un cimetière, nous devons organiser des funérailles. Mais ce doit être un enterrement plein de vie!”

Omelia Contadina
‘Omelia Contadina’ was born out of JR’s interest in the difficulties encountered by a large number of small farmers and inhabitants of rural italy. Alice Rohrwacher explains the origins of the project: ‘last autumn, during a walk on the border between Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany, I told my friend and artist JR of my concerns about the destruction of the agricultural landscape, violated by the intensive monocultures with which major corporations are shaping entire territories. I told him, as the daughter of a beekeeper, of the mass death of insects that such changes bring about… At one point, we stopped at a crossroads: on all sides, uninterrupted rows of hazelnut trees filled the landscape as far as the horizon. As we looked upon this, we commented to each other that it looked like a war cemetery. On the way back we decided — if it looks like a cemetery, we have to hold a funeral. But it must be a funeral full of life!‘

Lauren Kalman is a visual artist whose practice is invested in contemporary craft, video, photography and performance. Through her work she investigates beauty, adornment, body image, value, and consumer culture. Raised in the Midwest, Kalman completed her MFA in Art and Technology from the Ohio State University and earned a BFA with a focus in metals from the Massachusetts College of Art. She has been awarded residencies at the Corporation of Yaddo, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Santa Fe Art Institute. In addition she has received Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, Puffin Foundation West and ISE Cultural Foundation grants.

the Valley of the Gods
Valley of the Gods weaves together three narrative threads, mixing with the world of myths inspired by the Indian tribe legends about the ancient hero Ullikummin. “I am fascinated by the beauty and poetry of this mythology. It illustrates the contrast of primitive America with the current, equally surreal culture of America’s myth. With the culture of mass media and dreamed-up film illusions. It is summarised, among others, by the phrase ’sky is the limit’, demonstrating that everyone can become enormously rich”, director Lech Majewski said in a statement.

lumiére
a complete new version, the result of performing Lumière for more than one year, condensed into a more sophisticated, more complex, more fragile, more massive synaesthetic experience! photos and more info online in early February.Based on self written software, this work on the edge of concert and site specific installation finds previously unseen beauty and minimalistic elegance in a commonly underrated medium. High power lasers draw complex morphing shapes and connect points in space. Lumière combines precise geometric figures with floating organic structures, presenting the archaic sign language of an alien culture communicating via emerging and disappearing traces of extremely bright light.Percussive and textural sonic events provide a counterpoint to the visual rhythm, resulting in a multi sensorial experience which at times is fragile and quiet, at others massive and overwhelming. Each Lumière performance is a unique and site specific real time exploration of synchronicity and divergence, of light and darkness at the limits of perception.

bio intelligence quotient house
Dubbed the Bio Intelligent Quotient (BIQ) House, the approximately €5 million building was designed by Splitterwerk Architects and funded by the Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA), a long-running exhibition series showcasing cutting edge techniques and architectural concepts, for this year’s International Building Exhibition – 2013.
A total of 129 algae culturing tanks are affixed to the East and West sides of the building via an automated external scaffolding structure that constantly turns the tanks towards the sun. The plant cultures are fed through an integrated tubing system, CO2 is pumped in as well. According to Arup’s Europe Research Leader, Jan Wurm, who collaborated with Splitterwerk on the project:The algae flourish and multiply in a regular cycle until they can be harvested. They are then separated from the rest of the algae and transferred as a thick pulp to the technical room of the BIQ. The little plants are then fermented in an external biogas plant, so that they can be used again to generate biogas. Algae are particularly well suited for this, as they produce up to five times as much biomass per hectare as terrestrial plants and contain many oils that can be used for energy.Not only do these tanks provide shade for every level of the building during the summer and biogas for heating during the winter, the facade itself collects excess heat not being used by the algae, like a solar thermal system. That heat can then either be used immediately or stored in 80-meter-deep, borine-filled borehole heat exchangers located under the structure. Total fossil fuels used in this process: zero.